Piper sees dull Macworld, new form factor iPhone by spring

With Apple chief executive Steve Jobs skipping out on this year's Macworld Expo, investment bank Piper Jaffray isn't holding high hopes for new product announcements outside a pair of refreshed Macs, but said in a report Tuesday that a redesigned iPhone should surface in the months that follow.

"Predicting product announcements for this year's Macworld has been difficult with new iPods and Macs released in the fall and the relatively new iPhone 3G," analyst Gene Munster told his clients. "With [Apple marketing chief] Phil Schiller delivering the keynote, we believe it suggests there will not be any revolutionary products at this year's event."

Still, the analyst believes a couple of existing products could see a refresh at the annual conference, namely the iMac and Mac mini. Meanwhile, his hopes for a new iPhone — at one time seen as having an outside chance of appearing at the show — have been dashed with word that Jobs would not be delivering his traditional keynote presentation.

"While we believe it is unlikely that a new iPhone will be released at Macworld, we continue to expect a new model by the end of the March quarter," Munster wrote. "Specifically, we believe Apple could introduce a lower-end model that is slightly thicker due to the inclusion of a slider keyboard for students (texting) and business use (email) between $99 and $149."

Another alternative for a new iPhone could see Apple alter the value proposition of the $199 model by using a different material than plastic for the casing, or giving it a slightly thinner form factor, he added.

Munster, who maintains a Buy rating and $235 price target on shares of Apple, said his 45 million iPhone unit sales estimate for 2009 is largely predicated on his belief that the company will expand its iPhone lineup to include a lower-end model early in the year.

Is there absolutely NO hope for the 17" unibody MBP this coming spring/year? The 15" is nice, of course, but I really need the additional screen space. (Presently enjoying the 17" Duo Core MBP from September of 2007.)

i believe he is wrong. apple has been known to surprise. why do you think they made a "surprise" announcement that steve jobs wasn't going to be giving a keynote? so people would go. now that they know a lotta people are still gonna go, they're gonna release something big. they want to prove to the public that even phil schiller can release something good, not just steve jobs alone. This is all part of their plan. fuck the analysts, they're almost always wrong.

"Specifically, we believe Apple could introduce a lower-end model that is slightly thicker due to the inclusion of a slider keyboard for students (texting) and business use (email) between $99 and $149."

This guy doesn't know a thing about Apple, does he?

Quote:

Originally Posted by logic368

fuck the analysts, they're almost always wrong.

In this case, the word "almost" can be left out or replaced with "flat out".

Wait- I thought the new iMac was "next generation" or a "remodel"- here now it's being referred to as a refresh?
AI- Please make up your mind. Thank you.

They're not going to completely redesign the iMac. Every single other product Apple makes (with the exception of the base MacBook) has been brought in line with the design scheme developed for that Mac (and the Mac Pro in all honesty). Just look at the Mac Pro, that design has gone mostly unchanged for five years and the MacBooks rarely changed either. That iMac design is gonna be around for a while. After all, the aluminum design has only been around since mid 2007.

As has been noted, this is a refresh. So, what I'm expecting is an LED backlit screen, quad core processors, DDR3 RAM, larger hard drives, and better Nvidia graphics for the lower end iMacs. I'm not really sure what to expect with the Mac Minis, though. Hopefully, I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Is there absolutely NO hope for the 17" unibody MBP this coming spring/year? The 15" is nice, of course, but I really need the additional screen space. (Presently enjoying the 17" Duo Core MBP from September of 2007.)

What do ya' think?

Apple must have something special for the 17inch probably why it never got updated
probably core 2 quad and pray to god it can support 8GB ram

There is no way Apple will release an iPhone with a slide out physical keyboard.
To do so would be an admission of failure that the touch keyboard is not fit for purpose.
Apple will release a smaller iPhone nano - soon.